Interesting Television: The Prisoner (1967), and "The Prisoner" --Reloaded-- (2009),Part Two of Two

Production shot from "The Prisoner" (1966 or 67) at Portmeirion.  Note the giant meteorlogical  ballon, "Rover", which served as the nasty device that "retrieved" people who tried to check out of "The Village".    

 

 

"…We're run by the Pentagon, we're run by Madison Avenue, we're run by television, and as long as we accept those things and don't revolt we'll have to go along with the stream to the eventual avalanche… As long as we go out and buy stuff, we're at their mercy. We're at the mercy of the advertiser and of course there are certain things that we need, but a lot of the stuff that is bought is not needed…

…We all live in a little Village… Your village may be different from other people's villages but we are all prisoners."--Patrick McGoohan, from a 1977 Interview 

"I don't want to raise THE PRISONER to any more than it was, just a bit of television entertainment, but if it has a deeper meaning it is the fact that we are all prisoners. You know, the thin man is a prisoner because he's thin, a fat man can't go and buy the thin man's clothes, a very famous person can't go to the pub and have a drink because everyone recognises them. The Queen can't go shopping in a department store whenever she wants to, she's a prisoner in that sense. People are prisoners of their health, their religion, their wealth, their poverty, and that's an interesting theme to explore."

 --George Markstein (1914--1987) , co-creator of "The Prisoner" , from a 1984 interview.   Markstein served as producer and story editor of the series for most of its production until he and his star, McGoohan, had a serious falling-out over creative control near the last part of the shooting schedule.  McGoohan himself wrote the last episode of the series (called, ironically "Fall Out".)

  

 Markstein had served in British Intelligence during World War II and told McGoohan twenty years later about rumors he had heard of a special camp in Scotland set up for retired undercover agents  who knew too much to simply be out in public.  Patrick McGoohan, who was looking for a way to get out of doing any more episodes of  the popular series "Secret Agent" (or "Danger Man") , jumped at the chance to take the series in a totally different direction. The actor   later claimed that the character he was playing was not "Danger Man" John Drake, although photos from his time on the show are used in the opening.  The allegorical ending to the series--where Number 6 finally gets to meet  "Number 1"--led to initial disapointment  with the show, which reportedly lost money even after the rights were sold to CBS in America.  Interest in it rebounded when it was released in the 1970's and 80's.       

After a brief 1981 ITV interview with Patrick McGoohan--who talks about  the controversy over the the ending of the series and its cult folowing--there are some highlights from the original "Prisoner" series. (see  below)    There were many interesting episodes dealing with the some thorny issues of modern consumer societies.  The application of technology and scientific  progress had, in the minds of the producers, undercut individuality. People were made more vulnerable to institutions rather than free-thinking and fully-functioning individuals. (This was a similar theme explored about the same time by Stanley Kubrick in his film adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: A Space Odyssey".) 

Patrick Mc Goohan made attempts to get a film made of the series in the 1990's, and reportedly had Mel Gibson--his co-star from "Braveheart"--interested in playing the lead in the big-screen version.   This didn't pan out, but there is a new version of "The Prisoner" as a six-part television series due out next June  with Jim Caviezel as Number 6 and Ian McKellen as No.2.  It will be shown on the American Movie Classics cable station in the USA.  

 

 

 

The clips from the series show below (editted by Fragile78 from You Tube) feature several of the actors who played Number 2, including the pentultimate adversary, played by the great Australian actor Leo McKern from the later series  "Rumpole of the Baiiley".  

 

 

 

This last clip is from my favorite episode in the series.  Entitled "The Girl Who Was Death", it shows Number Six back at his old job tracking down a mad Napoleonic character and his young flirty daughter who plan to destroy London with a Super Rocket.  It's a rare episode which contains a good deal of funny scenes and good satire of the spy game, such as this one coming up where Our Hero stops at a pub to have a pint.